VAT Fun

People (including a director from John Lewis and a bank worker interviewed on the news) seem very confused about the new VAT rate. A drop from 17.5% to 15% will not reduced prices by 2.5%. The price reduction will be less than that. Let me use fudge to explain!

Assume I had a 100g slab of fudge and cut it into 100 identical pieces (this is hypothetical fudge so the act is possible and none would be eaten). That would be my “exclusive of VAT” fudge.

Then I clone the fudge pieces and add another 17.5 identical pieces. This would then be my “inclusive of VAT” fudge. I have added 17.5% to it.

I can now squash the fudge together into a slab again. The new slab weighs 117.5g.

And when the VAT rate changes from 17.5% to 15% I need to take some fudge away.

So I could cut my fudge into 100 identical pieces and take away 2.5 of them. But that wouldn’t be right. You can’t just take 2.5 away.

Because…

Each of the 100 pieces of fudge I now have is slightly larger than the pieces I had originally. Remember I added 17.5 extra pieces and squashed those into the slab? So if I took 2.5 pieces away I would be taking away too much. My “new VAT rated slab” would weigh 114.5625g not 115g (117.5g minus (2.5 times 1.175g lumps)).

The discount is not as much as 2.5%.

What you need to do is take the “inclusive of VAT slab” that weighed 117.5g and cut it into 117.5 pieces (not 100 pieces). These 117.5 pieces would each be the same size as the original pieces. You can then take away 2.5 other those and squish it back together. This new slab is the “inclusive of new VAT” fudge and would weigh 115g.

The discount is actually 2.1739%.

Mortimer Chocolate Powder

This week I have eventually gotten around to re-displaying the Mortimer Chocolate Powder. Rather than buying cocoa from multinational processors who have blended beans from many different origins to create a uniform taste, the Mortimer Chocolate Company find the best single origin cocoa beans. Like wine and coffee, the flavour of cocoa is influenced by the soil and region it is grown in. And so the Mortimer Chocolate Powders all taste different. It has taken me a while to find enough space in the shop to display the four different origin powders next to each other. Now I have done so I think the product will make much more sense to potential buyers. And with the descriptive card Adrian supplied, choosing a powder is much easier. The hope is that more people will notice and try the powders, though I very much doubt we’ll ever sell as much powder as we do brownies made from the chocolate powder!

Vegetables

This week we still have:
Apples
Broccoli
Carrots
Garlic
Onions
Pears (Conference)
Potatoes (Maris Piper)
Tomatoes

We also have:
Red Cabbage
Red Onions
And some very large flat muchrooms.

Soup-er Duper

One of the first new things to appear in the deli as the result of the speciality food fair I attended last month is Rod & Ben’s Organic Fresh Soup. Rod and Ben make the soup on their organic farm in Devon. After meeting them at the show, they sent me a pot to try, which I warmed, popped into a thermos and took on a walk a few weeks ago. I’m sure enjoying hearty piping hot soup watching the boats go by on a cool autumn day may have biased my judgement, but it really was very good soup. Thick and full of flavour. At the moment we’re trying four flavours, in 600g tubs (enough for two bowls):
Beetroot & Cumin
Leek & Potato
Soup of the Month, which is Mushroom & Tarragon
Plus a Vegetable Broth with Pesto (which is the only one to contain wheat/gluten).

This week’s fresh veg is the same as last week, the only exception being there are a lot more pumpkins and they are a lot bigger!

Holy Cheese, Batman!

Last week I was lucky enough to spend a day with the people from Emmi learning all about Swiss cheese. It was a fascinating day, though I have to admit the lunch was the best bit. Obviously heavy on the cheese we had a delicious raqulette, and cheesey fillo pastry pies. But it was also very interesting.

The things which stick in my mind was the video showing the cheese being made in small village dairies with local farmers bringing in little vans of milk to be made into cheese. And the origin of the holes in Swiss cheese. Wheels of Swiss cheese are wider and thinner than the truckles of English cheese like cheddar and Stilton and the texture much more springy and not crumbly. The reason being, these cheeses were produced up in the mountains in a time long before vans and motor cars. The only way to get them down the hill was to roll them. A few bumps and most cheeses would start to fall apart, but not the Swiss cheese with its internal suspension system. Clever? And tasty.

Fruit & Veg Update

This week we have:
Lots of Apples
Cox
Jonagold Red
Royal Gala
Russet

Broccoli
Carrots
Onions
Parsnips
Pears (Conference)
Potatoes
Pumpkins (Little Bear for eating and the huge halloween ones, all grown in Dorney)
Tomatoes

This week’s Fruit and Veg

Thinking about the return of the pickled onions got me thinking about our wonderful seasonal fruit and vegetables*. The range changes quicker than I really expected it would. Spring was so exciting with all sorts of new things arriving every couple of weeks. We had English lettuces, tomatoes, cucumbers, spring onions, asparagus, raspberries, celery, broad beans, strawberries, courgettes, sweetcorn, plums, cherries, runner beans... And, even though we're well into autumn now, there are still new bits and pieces coming into season. This week it is the English broccoli. I'm going to try to list which vegetables we have available whenever something new arrives over the next few weeks.

This week we have:
Lots of Apples
Bramley
Cox
Jonagold Red
Royal Gala
Russet

Broccoli
Onions
Pears (Conference)
Potatoes
Pumpkins (Little Bear grown in Dorney)
Tomatoes

And a quick browse on our nearest supermarket's web site revealed all our prices are lower than theirs where I could find a comparable product! I couldn't find any fresh pumpkins or vine tomatoes sold by the weight rather than by the number of tomatoes. But where I could compare we are cheaper which I'm really pleased about.



* Though we started off selling just seasonal English fruit and veg (local where possible) we now also have imported bananas and citrus fruit.

British Cheese Awards 2008

Last week saw the announcement of the winners of the British Cheese Awards 2008. It has been a mixed blessing. The wonderful (and local to us) Barkham Blue, made by Sandy and Andy Rose near Wokingham, won no less than three major awards:
Best Blue Cheese
Best English Cheese
Supreme Champion

No mean feet as it was up against over 900 cheeses from all around the British Isles. We knew it was a wonderful cheese. A sweet, spicy blue, deliciously creamy and moreish. The trouble is that now everyone else knows how great it is and we can't get hold of any!

Another of our local specials, the Wigmore, made by Sandy Rose's cousin Anne, at Village Maid Dairies won best soft white. A good day for Berkshire cheese makers! Not such a good day for Berkshire delicatessens now facing a shortage of their favourites!

A full list of the winners can be found at:
http://www.thecheeseweb.com/contentok.php?id=278

and an article on the BBC web site:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/berkshire/7649621.stm

They're Back!

Susie's Honeyed Pickled Onions have returned. Susie only makes them at this time of year when the onions are just right, and they only keep until spring so we’ve been without them for a few months. They were missed.

We had a bit of a run on these just before Christmas last year after lots of people who bought early for Christmas found they had accidentally eaten them all before Father Christmas had finished packing his sleigh. So this year we have the first batch Susie has made (which will be better if eaten from November onwards) and lots of them; giving everyone the chance to get some now and more in December!

I do like it when things like this come and go. I miss them when they're gone, but it is so exciting when they come back. Or is that just me?

Return of the Blog

This blog has been rather neglected recently. It wasn't intentional. It just didn't get written and once you miss a couple of weeks it is much harder to pick it up again. Where is a good place to resume?

The summer has been good for us (not the weather mind you). The shop was busy, brave people still went on picnics (though probably not as many as if we'd had some sun), visitors still came to see the college and castle and business was good. New products have arrived, a couple of slow sellers have ceased and the range looks pretty good at the moment (even if I do say so myself). There will be some exciting new products appearing over the next couple of months along with the return of some favourites from last winter. I will try harder with the blog.

Great Taste Awards 2008

I nearly forgot to tell you all about the winners of this year’s Great Taste Awards. I didn’t have time to spend a day as a judge this year so haven’t a sneak preview of the delights that were entered. But it didn’t matter as we stock a lot of the winners right here in the shop.

Teapigs had a very good night with two gold stars for their Jasmine Pearls and Mao Feng Green Tea, and one star for their Tung Ting Oolong Tea and Peppermint Leaves. Williamsons our black tea producer also won some awards. As did Pukka herbs.

Luscombe won a gold star for their organic Sicilian lemonade. Mother’s Garden, the olive oil from Spain which was mentioned by Delia Smith won a gold star as did Vallecoppa’s divine lemon infused extra virgin olive oil. Stratta entered their newest flavoured vinegars this year and won gold award for both the Sweet Black Mulberry and Sweet Damson.

Jules and Sharpie were awarded another star to add to their collection from last year. This time for hot mint jelly. And Tracklements also added to their collection with a star for their apple and sage jelly, strong horseradish & cream, apricot and ginger chutney, farmhouse pickle and onion marmalade.

Atkins & Potts won a gold star for their inventive Purple Basil Jam. Olives et al entered their Dukka in the "any other ingredient" category and it too won a gold star.

Piper’s Anglesey Sea Salt and Sea Salt & Somerset Cider Vinegar Crisps both won gold stars (as did another two of the flavours they produce).

Mike’s Smokehouse was awarded a gold star for heir smoked salmon pate, and for their hot-roast smoked salmon and smoked trout. The Ortiz anchovies also won a gold star.

Fine Cheeses from France

I stumbled across a new web site recently and really liked it. Very informative (it even mentions Tastes Deli!), lots of recipes and well laid out. If you are interested in Fine Cheeses from France have a look at http://www.frencheese.co.uk/

Salad Days

More and more English vegetables are becoming available and to accompany the asparagus we now have a lot of deliciously fresh salad items; little gems, baby carrots, spring onions, cucumbers, sprouted beans and spinach. All grown in England. Which is very timely as Gordon Ramsay was on the news this morning promoting seasonal produce! Now we just need the sun to start shining again and will be all set for picnicking by the Thames.

May Day

Yesterday way May Day and the official start of the British Asparagus season. Right on schedule I took delivery of my first batch of local asparagus! Grown 3.5 miles from the shop and delivered within hours of being picked. You can’t get much fresher!

It's been a while...

I've just been reminded that I've only one day left to put an entry in the blog for April. I hadn't realised it had been so long! I will be back soon....

How to Cheat at Cooking

Whenever Delia Smith, "the nation's favourite cook", launches a new book you can expect a great deal of media attention. Her latest book and television series: "How to Cheat at Cooking" is no exception, generating both acclaim and impassioned debate about the ingredients used and the recipes themselves. Frozen mashed potato and tinned mince aside, a common challenge facing Delia's fans this time around is the difficulty in obtaining the ingredients featured in the book. Many are not carried by the major super markets. This is where we come in!

On hearing what would be in the new book, and realising that many of the items were already being sold at Tastes (and not in the major supermarkets), I set out to source a few more of the high quality and hard to find items. Whilst the series runs on the television and until the end of 2008 at least, Tastes will be able to offer more than thirty of the specialist ingredients used in Delia's book. Many of these are old favourites of ours, some are making a special appearance and will only remain on sale if sales are sufficient.

So if you are hunting high and low for any of these, pop along to Eton:
Vietnamese Spring Roll Wrappers (traditionally made with rice flour so naturally wheat free and essential for making spring rolls at home).
Smoked Spanish Paprika
Tracklements chilli jam
Baked Aubergines
Peraud fish soup
English Provender Company Very Lazy Caramelised Red Onions
Green and Black's Chocolate
Antipasto in a jar (olives, mushrooms and artichoke hearts)
Mother's Garden extra virgin olive oil
Nabisco Premium Saltine crackers from the US
Seasoned Pioneer Spice Blends (we carry the 10 Delia used plus a lot more).
Sapori di Napoli and Martelli Italian pasta
Jars of chillies
Coco Lopez creamed coconut (a sweetened coconut milk designed for making pina colada)

Stock Demonstration

Last Saturday we held another successful tasting day, with Gary cooking up quick dishes using the More Than Gourmet stocks. His simple scallop dish was very popular but fortunately there were a few scallops left over which I had for my dinner! Doing exactly what I saw Gary do in the demo I fried some onions and mushrooms, then some baby scallops, added a few blobs of double cream and a tiny (1/4 tsp) amount of Glace de Fruits de Mer (a reduced classic seafood stock) and a bit of brandy. The Glace de Fruits de Mer adds a delicious fishy richness to the sauce. I had the scallops on toast!

Coconut Fish Curry

A new range of spice blends arrived this week. Fabulous little foil pouches from Seasoned Pioneers with minimal packaging and wonderful high quality spice blends. We have about 15 different blends in the shop at the moment and after much deliberation I chose the Caribbean Poudre de Colombo Spice Blend as the one I would try first. The recipe suggested on the back of the pack was for a very quick and easy Coconut Fish Curry. It was so good that I’ve made twice in one week: once with Tilapia fillets and once with Tuna steaks. Both curries were wonderful but the different fish made them quite different in taste and texture.

The simple (3 step, 9 ingredient) recipe is on the seasoned pioneers web site:
http://www.seasonedpioneers.co.uk/recipedetail.aspx?rid=23&cuisine=caribbean

Spring?

For the first time in months we have had the door to the shop open! It was brilliantly sunny this morning (though I still had to scrape ice off of the car windscreen) and was still sunny at noon. So I pinned back the door and left it open for five hours. I can't feel my fingers now, but it has been nice to have the breeze and remove that barrier with the street.

Pancakes!

This pancake day we experimented with toppings from the deli. After dinner we made a batch of pancakes and added a different sweet topping to each. Traditional lemon and sugar. An American version with Maple Syrup. Not so traditional (but quite yummy) chocolate spread. Quite unusual Vanilla Balsamic Glaze, which was surprisingly moreish and would have been even better with a blob of ice cream. And my surprise favourite honey rum and raisins!

Healthy New Year?

There are a lot of people avoiding cheese at the moment, which is what I expected for January. What I didn’t expect was an increase in white bread sales. For the first time since we opened, and for three consecutive weeks, white bread sales have exceeded wholemeal. What is that all about?

Back again!

Two weeks after closing for Christmas we're back. The shop was exactly as I’d left it (thankfully) and looking quite empty. Its taken two days to refill all the gaps left by the Christmas stock and is now all ready for the New Year.